This is a list of MPs who have not yet declared for or nominated a leadership candidate. At present there are 42 undecided MPs.
See the list of official nominations on the party’s website here.
Keith Vaz: he’s got so much love to give
08/06/2010, 01:25:59 PMYou can’t please all the people all of the time. But you can try.
While others hedged their bets, Leicester MP Keith Vaz came out early in support of David Miliband.
Some who remembered the 2007 deputy leadership contest were surprised to see Vaz nailing his colours so firmly to the mast. He was the only MP in that contest quietly to pledge his vote to all six of the candidates.
Less surprising, in which case, that yesterday he nominated Diane Abbott.
Even if she gets on to the ballot paper, though, he is under no obligation – not even moral – to vote for her. This is known as spreading the love. Keith is the master.
What passes for a PLP establishment machine in these days of interregnum is making serious efforts to get Abbott onto the ballot paper. MPs who haven’t yet nominated are being asked if they well lend her their support, in order to secure a less indefensibly homogenous choice for party members.
We believe it is to Vaz’s credit that he has switched his support in this way. More than anything, party members want a broad choice.
Last week, Keith added to the epistolary avalanche which threatens to obliterate the PLP, as dozens of their number seek election to something or other.
In Keith’s case, he is seeking re-election as chair of the important home affairs select committee. As a select committee chair – as in all things – Keith sees broad appeal as paramount: “all but one of the thirty one reports we produced was unanimous”, was the proudest boast of his letter to colleagues.
Timetable for the Election of the Leader of the Labour Party
07/06/2010, 12:00:11 PMAfter several requests, we’re publishing the formal timetable for the leadership race below.
This is the information sent to MPs by Labour’s General Secretary Ray Collins.
| May | |
| Monday, 24 May |
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| June | |
| Monday, 7 June |
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| Wednesday, 9 June |
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| Thursday, 10 June |
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| Friday, 11 June |
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| Sunday, 13 June |
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| Saturday, 19 June |
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| Saturday, 26 June |
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| July | |
| Sunday, 4 July |
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| Saturday, 10 July |
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| Friday, 16 July |
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| Sunday, 18 July |
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| Monday, 19 July |
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| Tuesday, 20 July |
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| Thursday, 22 July |
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| Sunday, 25 July |
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| Monday, 26 July |
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| Saturday, 31 July |
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| August | |
| Monday, 16 August – 22 September |
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| September | |
| Wednesday, 8 Sept |
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| Wednesday, 15 Sept |
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| Monday, 20 Sept |
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| Tuesday, 21 Sept |
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| Wednesday, 22 Sept |
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| Saturday, 25 Sept |
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Tony Lloyd sets out rules for tonight’s PLP hustings
07/06/2010, 11:03:21 AMChair of the Parliamentary Labour party, Tony Lloyd, has laid out the arrangements for tonight’s PLP hustings.
In a letter to PLP members, Lloyd set out detailed arrangements for the event, held a stone’s throw away from the House of Commons at Church House.
The candidates will draw lots to decide where they sit and in which order they speak. They will then make opening statements for which they will have strictly 2 minutes, with a further 2 minutes for closing contributions.
Lloyd has said that questions to the candidates won’t be vetted, but members will have to submit their question topics before the event.
“I am proposing that anyone who wants to ask a question email me the broad theme of their question so I can make sure we cover as many topics as possible and avoid repetition.
“I am obviously not going to start vetting subjects and questions, but it will in practical terms help me to make sure we don’t end up with the same question being asked several times. It will also help me judge which are the most important topics we all want to see covered.”
There will be as many questions as time allows before MPs return to the House for when the Whip comes on at 9pm. Questions will be taken one at a time and candidates will rotate the order in which they speak, to allow everyone to speak first.
Lloyd has apologised for the ‘somewhat bureaucratic’ process but defends it in the interest of the meeting. “I do think it’s in our collective best interest to make Monday as broad a discussion as possible.”
Taking the fight to the Tories
06/06/2010, 05:18:03 PMLast week, Labour Uncut adversely criticised all the leadership candidates for failing actively to get stuck into opposing the government. We called on them to lead by example, now and in the months to come, rather than endlessly pontificating about what they would do if they were leader.
Subsequently, we heard from team Balls that Ed had in fact tabled 40 Parliamentary questions to Michael Gove that week. Today he has released the following letter to Michael Gove.
This is more like it, we think.
Any examples other candidates might like to send us of what they’ve been actually doing to take the fight to the Tories will be published in the same way. (more…)
Je vis de bonne soupe et non de beau language
02/06/2010, 12:06:13 PMThe main leadership candidates are the sons of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. (Andy Burnham, it must be admitted, is more like the son of Chris Smith; but at the moment he is struggling to look like a main contender).
It comes as no surprise, in which case, that they are taking great care with their ‘messaging’.
(None has so far come up with very much to say. But actually having something to say goes beyond ‘messaging’. It is up there in the spin-wonk stratosphere with ‘strategy’).
David Miliband’s campaign is the best across the board. And so is his messaging. Every word is painstakingly crafted, by people – such as his spin doctor Lisa Tremble and Google’s DJ Collins – who are good at crafting words. Every two or three sentences carries a mellifluent phrase which stops – just – short of being a soundbite. (more…)
Alistair Darling’s letter in support of David Miliband
01/06/2010, 10:13:56 PMAlistair Darling released the following letter to his constituency party at 10pm on 1 June 2010.
Andrew Burns
Labour Party offices
78 Buccleuch Street
Edinburgh
Dear Andrew,
I am writing to let you know I will be nominating David Miliband as the next Leader of the Labour Party, and to explain my reasons for doing so. This is a crucial moment for our party so I wanted to write to you myself to set out my thinking.
We are fortunate to have a field of very strong candidates, each with different qualities. However, I believe strongly that David Miliband is the right person to lead our party, first in Opposition and then back to power. He has the right Labour values, with a deep commitment to equality. He has the ability to inspire the party with a compelling vision for the future, returning to our roots as a social movement for change. He has the maturity and humility to bring together different talents irrespective of whether they supported him in the leadership contest. He will re-engage Labour with the public, particularly those with whom we have lost touch. David has always campaigned and argued positively for the Labour Party and that is the kind of leadership we need. (more…)
Darling likely to endorse David Miliband this evening.
01/06/2010, 05:30:45 PMUncut hears convincing reports that the Shadow Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is likely to endorse David Miliband’s bid for the Labour leadership later this evening.
An increasingly pivotal figure in the previous regime, Darling’s support will be seen as significant.
Other members of the defeated Labour cabinet backing David Miliband include Alan Johnson, Douglas Alexander, Ben Bradshaw, Bob Ainsworth and Jim Murphy.
Ed Miliband is backed by Hilary Benn, John Denham and Peter Hain; while Ed Balls is supported by his wife, Yvette Cooper.
Still to declare are Gordon Brown, Nick Brown, Liam Byrne, Jack Straw and Shaun Woodward.
Select Committee elections: democracy washes over the machines
01/06/2010, 04:04:15 PM“The usual channels” is House of Commons code for the strange mixture of the whips’ offices, the Speaker’s office, the House authorities and the party leaderships, which has always arranged the business of the House.
Everything to do with select committees has always been carved up by the usual channels.
Not any more. In the name of reform, democracy is intervening.
Though less than it may seem.
Most important is the distribution of committee chairs by party. Some are decided by tradition: the treasury committee goes to the governing party, the public accounts committee to the opposition. Most others vary according to the composition of Parliament.
This most important decision was made last week – in the coalition government’s tinglingly transparent new reform Parliament – by carving it up in secret between the usual channels.
The way is now clear to proceed with some elections. (more…)
Forget the leadership – the real fight is to be deputy speaker
01/06/2010, 07:40:57 AMThe real cognoscente election of the moment is that for the Labour deputy speakerships.
It is hard to get worked up about the leadership election. So many months. So few differences.
And the shadow cabinet election, not scheduled to happen till after the new leader is anointed, remains a little abstract. (The emerging theme, though, is of a bizarre mass election in which more members of the PLP stand than don’t.)
But the first ever deputy speakership election is interesting. Ostensibly, it is part of the revolutionary change sweeping Parliament in the wake of the expenses crisis. In fact, exactly the same people will be elected to exactly the same unsung jobs chairing Parliament’s unseen hours as would have been appointed anyway. (more…)
